


Lost in Lockdown

by Lunaandtwilight07



Series: OutlawQueen One-Shots [4]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Cute, Dogs, England (Country), F/M, First Meetings, Fluff, Forests, Meet-Cute, Virus, lockdown - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:20:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23650726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunaandtwilight07/pseuds/Lunaandtwilight07
Summary: Regina has lost something during her one form of daily outside exercise, can Robin, a total stranger, help her find it again?
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Robin Hood
Series: OutlawQueen One-Shots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1998013
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23





	Lost in Lockdown

**Author's Note:**

> Here's something a little uplifting to help with those lockdown blues.

One minute he was there and the next he was gone, she’d bent down to tie her shoelace and only taken her eyes off him for a moment, that moment was all it took for him to take his chance and disappear. She groaned and shook her head looking around to see if she could catch a glimpse of him. “Bruno!”

Not a peep. On one side of the track there was a thick built-up area of forest and on the other an open expanse of fields which spanned for as far as the eye could see, building into a hilly slope. “Bruno! Where are you boy?! Come here!”

She continued to shout him for a few minutes before leaning against the wall and closing her eyes. Trust him to do this to her, at least she didn’t have anywhere better to be, her daily walks were the only thing keeping her from going insane. With the world on hold, almost everyone in it had nothing but time.

There was a pandemic, and they were currently two weeks into lockdown with no foreseeable end in sight. Although she was a teacher, the school she worked at was closed, being a high school, the children were okay to stay home alone should their parents be key workers.

“Hi, excuse me.”

She looked up, finding a guy stood on the opposite side of the track, a beautiful golden spaniel sat at his feet with a blue ball in its mouth. The man had unkempt dark blonde hair and blue eyes which matched the colour of his dog’s toy. “Hello,” she nodded, observing the clear distance between them, distance which was unfortunately necessary.

“Sorry, you just looked a little upset and I wanted to see if you were okay,” he stated.

“I lost my dog,” she murmured, looking around again to see if she could find another sign of where he’d gotten to. “One minute he was here and the next he was just gone.”

“Well I haven’t seen a dog on its own, but Lady here is a good tracker, do you have something with his scent on?” He asked.

“Oh, I have his leash,” she quipped.

“That’ll work. I’m Robin by the way.”

“Regina. Thank you,” she smiled, tucking a strand of dark hair that had escaped her ponytail back behind her ear. The spaniel trotted over to her at its owner’s command before sniffing the lead in her hand, picking up Bruno’s scent before looking back at the man.

“Where’d he go girl?” Robin asked, picking up the ball she had been carrying as they watched her dart over a stile, heading for the woods.

“Are you just going to let her go?” Regina questioned, her eyes widening as the dog disappeared into the trees, she was a little shocked that he had just allowed his dog to run off like that. Though to be honest she could hardly say anything, her dog was nowhere to be found, but it wasn’t her fault he was naughty.

“Come on, now we follow her.”

“You want me to go with you into the woods?” she asked, raising her eyebrow at him, feeling slightly weary, she’d never seen this man before and wasn’t sure if she should just be following him into a dense area of woodland.

“We’re going to find your dog, aren’t we? Plus, I can’t get within two meters of you so don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll be perfectly safe,” he grinned with a wink. “Or maybe it’s me who should be careful, who knows, maybe you don’t even have a dog and are actually some kind of psychopath on the lookout for easy victims, luring them in with the lost dog act.”

“Wow, seems you really are crazy,” she chuckled, following him over the stile anyway as they made their way down the worn path towards the entrance to the woods.

“People tell me I have an overactive imagination,” he shrugged, “guess that’s what makes me a good literature lecturer.”

“Literature?”

“Hmm,” he nodded, looking back at her as she followed, sticking to what she figured was probably two meters away from him. “I teach at the university.”

“Well, seems we have similar jobs, though you were sensible picking an older age group, trust me.”

“Don’t tell me you’re in primary,” he groaned, flashing her a grin as he walked through the first set of trees, “that really would be torturous.”

“Oh, I would love to be in primary.”

He stopped still on the path, making her jump slightly as she halted her walk, shuffling back a little when she realised, she was too close to him. “What? What is it?” she questioned in concern, looking around, she hated the woods, would never go in them if she was alone, so she had no idea what possessed her to go with a complete stranger. Maybe she was about to meet her maker. Thanks a lot, Bruno.

“I just realised something and it was so terrifying,” he left a pregnant pause, turning on the spot as he stared at her, “if you don’t teach primary, you must teach high school kids,” he stated with a shudder.

She tried to fight the smile that forced its way onto her face, “I can’t believe you did that!” she tutted, “I thought something had happened.”

“Something did happen, I realised that you go to work every day and teach eleven to sixteen-year-olds. I feel awful for you.”

“My students are perfectly fine, thank you, a good teacher can teach any age group,” she quipped, holding her nose up high and looking around the trees, “where did your dog go?”

“Not sure, let's see. Lady! Here girl,” Robin called, not a minute later the cocker spaniel emerged from the trees ahead of them, showing them the way through the trees. Regina felt slightly jealous that his dog would come back at the slightest command, hers couldn’t even complete basic commands, he was stubborn that way. “There she is.”

“I see that.”

“We better pick up the pace so that she doesn’t lose his scent.”

Regina nodded as they followed the dog, going a bit faster as they weaved in and out of the trees. The sun was shining through the canopy, throwing patchy light around the dark woodland, it was a beautiful day and the weather was being kind to them, taking pity on them being trapped in quarantine. She was just happy that she lived in a house with a garden, she felt awful for those who didn’t have one and had to stay inside all day unless they were taking their hour of daily exercise.

“So then, how’s the lockdown treating you? Weird isn’t it?” Robin chuckled, briefly glancing back at her.

“Very weird. I have my dog for company and that’s it.”

“Same,” he nodded. “You didn’t want to lockdown with family or anything?”

“Couldn’t. My parents live down south, and we’ve seen all those people on the news being yelled at for travelling down to Cornwall.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a point, was there no one else?”

“My friends offered, but I don’t think I could have spent the amount of time we’ve been locked away with them twenty-four seven and then there’s Bruno. He’s a little bit… well, he’s Bruno,” she chuckled. This was so strange for her, she didn’t talk to random people she’d never met, she would just about muster a hello whilst out walking and that was it for her social interaction with strangers. “My sister lives in America now, so that was out of the question too. How about you, why are you spending your lockdown alone?”

“My mum lives down in Wales, she moved there a few years ago when my dad passed away. Apart from that, I don’t really have any other family. As for friends, I’m in the same boat as you with that one, though I can’t blame the dog, she’s the perfect pet.”

“Some people are just luckier than others,” she scoffed, “just because Bruno can be a little bit of a crazy boy at times doesn’t mean he’s any less perfect than Princess or whatever her name is.” Regina couldn’t stop herself from snapping at him, getting defensive of her pet.

“Hey, its Lady and I didn’t mean it like that, I wasn’t trying to offend you. I just meant… never mind,” he shook his head, going quiet again as they carried on walking.

The further they went in silence the worse she felt for her little outburst, she had remembered his dog's name but had just been trying to lash out at him. “Sorry about that, I really am grateful that you’re helping me find him. I know that he’s naughty and you were just stating facts,” she sighed.

“Apology accepted.”

She scoffed quietly at the smugness in his voice, she could almost imagine the smirk that must be playing on his face, were he to turn around she’d be able to see it for herself. Despite apologising to him, the silence went on, the only sound made was the noise of the foliage beneath their feet and the slight wind whistling through the trees. She didn’t know exactly how long they had been walking, how big exactly were these woods? “Do you actually know your way through here?”

“Yes, I’ve lived in the area since I was a kid, me and my friends would play here every day, we had dens and everything. I know the woods like the back of my hand.”

“Oh.” That was certainly reassuring, she had moved up north seven years ago to attend a university in Manchester and following that had applied for the job she was currently in; working in a high school that served a series of small towns and villages. The University Robin told her he worked at was probably the one in the largest town a thirty-minute drive away from the rural area where they lived. “How far into it are we exactly?”

“A quarter of the way I’d say. How did your dog actually end up running off?”

“I was tying my shoes one minute and the next he’d just gone; you need to keep your eyes on him constantly.”

“Does he chase squirrels or other animals?”

“He’d probably chase bears if he thought they might play with him,” she scoffed, wishing that her dog wasn’t always such an embarrassment. Her mother hated him, which was yet another reason Regina barely went to visit her hometown any more, if her dog wasn’t welcome then she didn’t want to go. It was a shame because he really loved the beach or any type of water. “I normally take him up the reservoir once a week during the spring and summer months so he can go for a swim, this is perfect weather for it. Wears him out too which is always a bonus.”

Robin chuckled, “ever thought about trying throwing a ball for him or something?”

“Oh, he has a ball, he just took it with him.”

“Right,” the man in front of her glanced at her over his shoulder, offering her a kind smile. “I know you can’t get up to the reservoirs, but have you not found the secret lake?”

“Secret lake?” she asked, she hadn’t heard anything about a secret lake, though then again it had the word secret in the title so it wasn’t surprising.

“Hmm, about halfway into the woods there’s a lake, you have to go off the path to find it and if you didn’t know it was there you wouldn’t find it, but its there. I could show you if you want.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. I wouldn’t be brave enough to come in here on my own,” she shuddered just at the thought of it, being so far in right now was scaring her a little. She was beginning to wish that she had just stayed where she was and waited for her dog to come back, hopefully, he would have done eventually. Regina took her phone from her pocket, checking the time, she had been out for almost two hours and knew that exceeded the recommended time of an hour.

“That’s true, glad to see you’re safe and wary of strangers,” the sarcasm was evident in his voice. She did see the irony of it, to be honest, she’d only just met him and was now blindly following him and his dog into the forest. It wasn’t all that safe, sure he looked trustworthy but he could be crazy for all she knew, she’d watched You and Killing Eve, she knew that the most normal looking people could be the craziest. 

“Not this again. Wouldn’t you have killed me already if you wanted to?”

“Who knows?”

“Shut up,” she scoffed. Where the hell was her dog? “This is getting ridiculous.” She was tired of walking and just wanted to head back home to her solitary confinement, “Bruno!” she yelled as loud as she could, scaring some of the birds that had been nesting in the treetops and sending them flying in different directions. “Bruno!”

“He really is a stubborn boy isn’t he.”

“Unfortunately.”

“Maybe we could try something else.”

“What do you suggest?”

“Scream.”

“What?” she furrowed her eyebrows at him, taking a step back as she tried to take in the expression on his face. She wasn’t exactly sure what he was telling her to do and whether it was about getting her dog back or if he truly was a psycho.

“Well, I’m guessing your dog cares about you. Do you think he’d come if he thought you were in danger?”

Regina mulled it over, it wasn’t an awful idea, Bruno could be protective when he wanted to be. She just didn’t want to alert the attention of any other walkers by screaming the forest down, it was a little unnerving. “Maybe, but do you really think that will work?”

“We won’t know unless you try it.”

Regina nodded, taking a deep breath before letting out a blood-curdling scream, making Robin jump in the process. Any birds that hadn’t been scared off by her yelling for her dog certainly had flown the nest at the racket she just made, the noise vibrating off the trees and carrying through the forest, alerting the golden spaniel who had been leading them. The small dog darted towards them, looking from Robin to Regina in alarm, thinking that something was wrong, sniffing around them both for any sign of injury or danger. “Urgh, why is she so good?” Regina grumbled, moving to perch on a fallen tree.

Robin sighed and leant down a few meters away from her to fuss his dog, reassuring her that they were both indeed fine.

She watched them and sighed to herself, “well, it's nice to know that my dog doesn’t care if I’m in danger or…” before she could finish her sentence something large, black and heavy knocked her backwards, clean off the log, a huge pink tongue running over her face, wet fur pressed against her body. “About time you showed up,” she scoffed, giggling at the tickling of his tongue as he licked her. “So you do care about me, after all, hey boy?”

“That’s Bruno?” Robin asked. Regina glanced over at him, trying to see over the mass of dog on top of her, he had a stunned expression on his face as he simply stared at them. “I thought you said he was a dog.”

“He is a dog.”

“Sure he’s not a horse?”

“He’s a dog!” she protested, sitting upon the ground, holding onto the large red collar and forcing her dog to sit beside her, he was way taller than her sitting down. His tongue lolling out of his mouth as his tail wagged happily, she was glad someone was having a good time because he had given her the scare of her life.

“How do you lose something that size?”

“He’s fast okay,” she argued, clipping the leash onto his collar, not risking him giving her the slip again. She stood from the ground and Bruno followed suit.

“What even is he?”

“Well, we’re not really sure what he is. Part Great Dane, part Newfoundland, maybe a little Irish wolfhound in there.” Admittedly he was massive, but he was hers and to her, he was the best, apart from maybe when he did his disappearing acts.

“You could ride him home.”

“Very funny.”

“No wonder people don’t want him as a house guest. Does he even fit in the house?”

“He isn’t that big,” she scoffed as they started on the path back towards the track she had been on when this had all begun.

“Pfft, could have fooled me. I’m not joking, you could take him to the seaside and use him for donkey rides.”

“Any more jibes you want to throw my way?” Regina huffed, stroking her fingers through the damp curls on the top of Bruno’s head as he walked beside her, not pulling as he sometimes would, most likely because he tired himself out. Lady was still trotting on ahead of them, looking back now and then to make sure that they were there. “He gets sensitive about his size.”

“Sorry, I didn’t realise that horses got self-conscious.”

“I’m not listening.”

“How old is he anyway?”

“He’s three, I got him from a rescue centre when he was just four months old.”

“Oh, so you got him when he was smaller?”

“Hmm.”

“Didn’t realise he’d grow to the size of Clifford the big red dog when you adopted him eh?”

“Shut up, I knew he was going to grow, just maybe not as big as he is. I’d be careful about teasing him though, you know what they say about big dogs.”

“What do they say?” Robin asked, grinning at her as she turned to look at him with a smirk playing on her lips.

“They have big teeth,” she shrugged, she knew that Bruno was a big softy, he’d never bitten anyone or even shown the intention to. The word to describe him was probably dopey, but Robin didn’t know that, the dog’s mouth was pretty big and his teeth were on show as he panted from all the running.

“Touché. Looks as though he might have found that lake, I was telling you about earlier.”

“Yes, and I get the unfortunate job of trying to give him a bath when we get home, he’s not going to be happy about that.” Although he loved water, the hosepipe was a different story and there was no chance she was putting him in her tub in the bathroom, she knew that would result in the whole house being soaked.

“Have fun with that.”

“Just because your dog is a pristine Queen.”

“That she is.”

It was true, his dog wasn’t dirty or wet in the slightest, she looked as though she had just stepped out of the groomers, her perfect fur was gorgeously brushed and neat. She was just glad that she’d had Bruno clipped before the lockdown began, he hated it, but it had to be done, his hair grew so quickly and it picked up things on walks, so she tried to keep it somewhat short, apart from the fur around his face, that was left a little longer, it just looked more natural that way.

The rest of the way back to the path was spent making small talk, discussing their dogs and what they were going to eat for dinner later. Talking about random little things, nothing that was of any real importance. She found it nice to just talk to someone, even if they did have to remain at least two meters away from her at all times. By the time the forest gave way to the fields and the track came into view she was feeling a little reluctant for their time together to be over.

On the whole, it had been an interesting turn of events and although he’d been a sarcastic bastard quite a lot of the time, she’d enjoyed talking to another person, she had appreciated his company. “Well, I suppose I should be getting home, I’ve been out longer than I should have really,” she quipped.

“Me too,” he nodded, “it was nice to meet you.”

“You too and thank you, for stopping to help me.”

“You’re welcome. I’d shake your hand but you know, can’t really come anywhere near you.”

“True,” she smiled, fiddling with Bruno’s ears and making them twitch as she did so, he nuzzled into her, his wet fur rubbing against her leggings which were now fit for nothing but the wash.

“Maybe I’ll see you around again at some point, might even show you the secret lake if you’re lucky.”

“Maybe you will.”

“Catch you later Regina. Try not to lose your horse again,” he remarked with a grin as he started walking in the opposite direction to the one she would be taking.

“He’s a dog!” she shouted after him, standing there and watching as he disappeared around the corner whilst laughing to himself. Regina sighed and looked down at said animal, who was wagging his tail as he stared at her, “why do you always get me into such trouble?” she asked, receiving a happy bark in return. “Ah you won’t be laughing after your bath will you,” she grinned, setting off on her way back towards home. “You certainly won’t be so waggy then, little troublemaker.”


End file.
